Reflections on Bridging Cultural Divides

Dear Reader,

My name is Amy Rathbun. I received my bachelor’s degree in elementary education at Michigan State University in 2004. I completed my year-long internship in a fifth grade classroom at Mount Hope Elementary School in the Lansing School District in the Spring of 2005. Upon the completion of my teaching internship, I began the following school year as a substitute teacher in a Kindergarten class at the same school. After a month in that class, I continued substitute teaching in a number of schools in the Lansing School District until I was hired in as an instructional assistant at Mount Hope Elementary. I worked with students from two first grade classrooms under the “Reading First” initiative.  Small group literacy instruction was my primary focus. Since I was quite familiar with the teachers of the two classes, they were willing to give me flexibility and extra opportunities to develop lesson plans to fit the specific needs of students. During this semester, I also had the opportunity to tutor 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade students who struggled with reading and writing as well. At the end of the school year, my position with the district was eliminated due to budget cuts.

I began working for the College of Education at Michigan State University the following summer and school year on a grant through the Exploratorium. I helped organize data for research on the effectiveness of certain types of professional development experiences for novice secondary science and math teachers. My exposure to this arena of the educational field inspired me to continue my graduate studies and finish my MA in teaching and curriculum.

I returned to the MATC program in the Fall of 2008 after living overseas for a year while my husband studied in Wales, U.K.  I successfully completed the program with honors during the summer of 2009. I have not yet sought after a full-time teaching job, since I have young children at home. However, I am very passionate about working with students in urban contexts and empowering them to become sharp thinkers and healthy contributors to society. I hope to teach full-time once all of my children are in school. I also have an interest in eventually furthering my education and pursuing a career in research and teacher education. My goal is to explore the implications of what causes novice teachers in urban teaching contexts to burn out, as well as to equip teachers with the theoretical knowledge and practical skills they need to thrive in urban teaching contexts.

Sincerely,
Amy Rathbun